I use various Shortcuts that I hardly ever change, but I just tried to change a couple previously installed in MacOS 15 & iOS 18 that don’t work as expected – even after backing out changes, reverting to the earlier version (which used to work).
Example: this shortcut no longer runs; it now complains that the variable Current Focus doesn’t exist if not set to anything:
But is a change of behavior. In previous versions of Shortcuts, the variable was created by the Get action, even if it set to Nothing. And could be checked by “If … Current Focus does not have any value”.
I’ve used similar logic in other now-broken shortcuts and automations: if something is not set, set it to something – otherwise do something else …
And yes, in this case, the workaround is obvious: create two shortcuts: one to set DND, the other to un-set DNS, and put those two on my Dock instead of just the one.
Another different and maybe not-so-subtle Shortcuts change I’ve encountered is in using (undocumented) URLs to go deep into Settings (on iOS & iPadOS) where it would usually take many multiple clicks & swipes to reach. This now works only about half the time on either iPhone or iPad:
It appears that a workaround is possible using the “Is online?” action to check whether or not the device is or is not online. And then setting the WiFi (and Cellular Data, for an iPhone) and the Focus Mode to DND or turning it off as appropriate.
A variety of other Settings can also be tested with “Is …” actions, although Focus Mode cannot.
